Dr. Oz Recommends Lettuce Opium Sleep Aid Rather Than Ambien

In light of celebrity deaths due to prescription drug abuse and recent news about a study that claims that prescription sleep aids like Ambien are as dangerous as cigarettes, people are asking what sleep aids are actually safe to take. While there are a number of herbal teas and the like that have proven to be safe as sleep aids, Dr. Oz went on air this week and recommends to his viewers an extract from the stem of a wild lettuce plant known as lettuce opium that he says has calming sedative effects and can be used as a sleep aid.

Lettuce Opium info

Lettuce opium—also known as lactucrium—is a milky sap that is secreted by the lettuce plant species Lactura vitrosa as well as potentially a number of other lettuce species. It got its moniker as “lettuce opium” due to the sap’s physical opium-like appearance and its reported sedative and analgesic properties that have been described as causing mild sensations of euphoria similar to that experienced with opium.

Reportedly, lettuce opium was used as far back as ancient Egyptian times and has met with moderate to low success over the past century as a medicinal plant. Claims toward the effectiveness of lettuce opium is attributed to treating numerous maladies including urinary tract infections, whooping cough, insomnia, painful cramps during menstruation, swollen male genitals, joint pain and nymphomania.

Early interest in lettuce opium was the belief that it might serve as a mild and safe substitute for the much stronger and highly addictive opium derived from the poppy plant. However, very few credible studies have produced results that demonstrate that the lettuce opium is as effective as previously believed. In one study involving pain detection in mice, lettuce opium is reported to have an analgesic effect equal to ibuprofen. It is hypothesized that part of the trouble with showing any demonstrable efficacy may be due to that the active ingredient(s) of the extract are unstable and cannot be preserved in a commercial product for use.

According to The British Pharmaceutical Codex, lettuce opium has been used throughout Europe in cough lozenges and cough syrups with some success in doses of 30 milligrams and is noted for its slight analgesic properties. In the U.S., it appears that lettuce opium has thus far evaded any need for regulation as a controlled substance, even in spite of fringe user communities that claim the lettuce opium qualifies as a “legal narcotic substitute.”

Lettuce opium hazards

However, this is not to say that taking lettuce opium is totally safe. A search of risks, hazards and contraindications related to lettuce opium include:

• Large doses may impair breathing and cause death in otherwise healthy individuals.

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